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By Parker Morse, Running USA wire
EUGENE, Ore. - (June 27, 2008) - Shalane Flanagan, who set a U.S. record in her first-ever 10,000 meter this spring, made her second Olympic team by winning her second race at the distance, in 31:34.81, on Friday evening at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field. Flanagan, 26, who will return Monday evening for qualifying rounds in the 5000 meters, where the North Carolina grad also holds the AR, defeated Kara Goucher, the bronze medalist from last year's World Championships in Osaka, for the victory. Goucher, 29, clocked 31:37.72 to finish runner-up and join Flanagan on the Beijing Olympic squad.
The third Olympic spot may have come from as thrilling a race as the duel for the victory. Goucher's training partner, Amy Yoder Begley, clawed her way to a personal record 31:43.60 for the coveted third place. Begley, 30, needed to run under 31:45.00, the Olympic "A" standard, to join Flanagan and Goucher, and she managed that with a sub-70-second closing lap which had the Eugene crowd roaring.
The early pace didn't look promising for anyone's "A" standard pursuit, as Magdalena Lewy Boulet - already on the Olympic team by virtue of her second place finish at the women's marathon Trials in April - took the early pacemaking chores and led the pack through kilometer splits of 3:24, 6:35 and 9:47. Lewy Boulet was occasionally able to string the pack out into single file with swifter laps, but when she started to fade approaching the 4000m mark, the pack bunched up behind her. The split was 13:08, and at that point Flanagan took the initiative, breaking from the pack and carrying Goucher and Begley along with her.
The race for the top three was essentially over at that point as none of the pursuers were able to make up ground on that trio. The pace for the leaders went from 3:21 for the 4th kilometer to 3:02 for the fifth, but lagged slightly in the successive splits. With Begley's qualifying status uncertain, Katie McGregor and Molly Huddle, both with sub-31:45 marks, may both have hoped to pick up the third spot.
Begley was quite aware of her situation, though, saying, "I was doing a lot of math in the last 800 meters." With six laps remaining, she took the lead from Flanagan, trying to push the pace back down.
With three laps to go, Goucher moved to the front. Flanagan covered the move instantly, and after another lap took the lead herself, opening out her 5000m stride in the closing laps to put Goucher away.
Begley, who ran the second half of this race within ten seconds of her best-ever time for 5000m (15:33 to her PR of 15:24), finished both the 24th and 25th laps looking anxiously at the scoreboard.
"I saw that I had 70 seconds," said Begley, "and I thought about how Kara's been pulling me through 63s and 64s this past month, so I decided to do it now."
When her time was announced, she and Goucher embraced, literally jumping for joy. Begley joined the ranks of national-class athletes when, as an Arkansas senior, she won the NCAA 10,000m crown at Hayward Field in 2001.
"I think that Amy is the story of the night. As amazing as Shalane is and amazing as I think I am, she [Amy] said 'I don't care who you two guys are, I'm going for it,'" said Goucher.
Flanagan, who will be looking to become only the third person and first woman to win the 5000m and 10,000m at the same Olympic Trials, said, "Tonight, I wanted to run well in a championship-type, fast-finishing race. The last laps I was just thinking about how badly I wanted this."
The next distance final is the men's 5000m - led by world champion Bernard Lagat and Matt Tegenkamp - on Monday, June 30.
U.S. Women's Olympic Trials 10,000m - Friday, June 27, 2008
1) Shalane Flanagan (NC), 31:34.81
2) Kara Goucher (OR), 31:37.72
3) Amy Begley (OR), 31:43.60
4) Katie McGregor (MN), 32:29.82
5) Blake Russell (CA), 32:31.07
6) Magdalena Lewy Boulet (CA), 32:45.06
7) Sara Slattery (CA), 32:46.60
8) Lisa Koll (IA), 33:09.87
9) Molly Huddle (RI), 33:17.73
10) Melissa Cook (TX), 33:18.12
Complete Olympic Trials results and more at: .
Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director
(805) 696-6232; Fax = (805) 659-0016
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
www.RunningUSA.org.
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